


Home for Christmas

by weepingnaiad



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Fluff, Gen, Homecoming, M/M, Nicknames, cotton candy bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 04:53:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weepingnaiad/pseuds/weepingnaiad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Summary:</b> Leo goes home for Christmas for the first time since the divorce and joining Starfleet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> **Beta:** As ever, my brain twin, and soul sister, , wrangled my words into something readable and coherent. I will never be able to convey my gratitude, bb. But, of course, I fiddle even after posting, so any mistakes are all on me.
> 
> **A/N:** Fill for my Cotton Candy Bingo square: _Nicknames_. 
> 
> **Disclaimer:** These are Paramount and Roddenberry's characters used in the spirit of creative commons. I promise to return them with smiles on.

Leo dropped into the sofa, heaving a tired sigh. He lifted the tumbler of bourbon to his lips and took a large sip. He savored the caramel-honey richness, the sharp burn on his tongue, and the lingering warmth spreading from his gut. Settling further into the overstuffed cushions, he allowed himself to drink in the reality surrounding him.

Home. His family home. Georgia.

He was sitting in his living room marveling at their live spruce, perfectly trimmed, albeit lopsidedly, the old hand-blown glass ornaments mingling with childish cutouts to create a uniquely endearing tree, one that he was unable to keep from smiling at, even though his heart clenched from just how much he'd missed. But he was here, listening to the comforting sounds and smells emanating from the large, farmhouse kitchen where his mother was cooking with his daughter; Joanna who was such a grown-up nine-year old.

And Leo hadn't yet figured out how this had happened.

One minute he'd been getting quietly plastered amidst a raucous group of his fellow cadets, the whole bar celebrating the end of finals, and the next he'd been shoved into a shuttle.

"Merry Christmas, Bones," Jim had said. He'd been giving Leo this huge, shit-eating grin which grew wider when he glimpsed Leo's bewildered, hungover expression. And all Leo could do was stare until the shuttle doors closed and Jim's face was lost to him.

"Daddy?" Joanna's voice pulled Leo from his reverie and he stared up at his daughter. She was holding a tray with iced cookies and two mugs of hot chocolate.

"Yeah, sweet pea?"

"Gram said you need fattenin' up."

Leo laughed and took the tray, sliding it onto the coffee table. "Your gram would say that even if I was so wide I couldn't get through the front door."

He patted the sofa beside himself and lifted his arm when Joanna scrambled up next to him.

After handing her a mug of chocolate, he traded his bourbon for one of his own, then snatched two iced cookies, his was shaped like a star and Joanna took a candy cane.

They sat like that for awhile, quietly sipping the chocolate and eating cookies. It was strangely domestic and heartwarming and Leo had to swallow a few times when he'd glance at Jo-Jo and she'd be looking at him, her eyes alight, a soft, wistful smile made more endearing by the streaks of icing on her cheeks.

Before he could embarrass himself and let his wet eyes overflow, Joanna set down her nearly empty mug and nudged his ribs. "Daddy? How come Jim calls you Bones?"

Leo blinked, tilting his head to gaze at his too-smart for only nine daughter. "Jim?"

"Yeah, your _roommate._ Remember?" And when did that happen? Jo was only nine, but she was already quite good at the eye-rolling and sarcasm that seemed to be genetic in McCoys.

"I remember," he snorted. "But how do you know Jim?"

Joanna just looked at him, like he was silly. "I heard him talking to mama." Her unspoken 'Duh' was almost louder than her words.

"Jim talked to your mama?" And then it clicked. Jim had arranged this.

"Sure. He called a few times. Always saying Bones-this, Bones-that. Mama hung up on him the first time." Her eyes danced mischievously when she continued. "He just grinned when he called again. Called mama a spitfire. Said he could see why y'all didn't stay married."

Jo's casual declaration about the disaster that had been the dissolution of his marriage should sting, but it didn't. So much had happened since then, not the least of which was sitting beside him, that Leo couldn't hold onto the bitterness.

"So what is it, Daddy? Why does Jim call you Bones?"

"Jim's... well, Jim's hard to explain. But he has a tendency to name the things that he's claimed for his own."

"Are you Jim's?" She looked mildly curious.

Leo nodded. "Yeah, baby, I think I am."

"Good," she said with a decisive nod. "You need someone to look after you."

"I do?"

"Sure. Gram says you get lost in your own head. Forget to eat. Go off half-cocked." Jo was repeating his mom, Leo knew, but the words seemed wrong in her little-girl voice.

Leo just smiled through the way he flushed. "That's what she says, huh?"

"Yep."

And then those tears that Leo had forgotten about pricked insistently because his baby girl, his beautiful blond haired angel, lifted to her knees and wrapped her arms around Leo's neck, her little arms squeezing tightly. Leo encircled her waist and buried his face in her curls.

"I love you, Daddy."

"Love you, too, pumpkin," he murmured, voice thick with emotion.

When this week was over, when he returned to the Academy, before Leo tackled his last flight test: certification, Leo was going to have some words with Jim. But possibly he'd save the talk and show his meddling roommate just how grateful he was for this chance.

The End


End file.
